Thursday, March 21, 2013

My Beautiful Baby Shower Deliciousness

 My baby shower was the most incredible day! It was so beautiful, my mum put in so much hard work to make it super special for me :) and most of my amazing friends were able to be there... One thing my mum had actually mentioned to me though, was - Maybe we shouldn't do it vegan as everyone may not like that kind of food. HA! Yeh right... It may sound selfish - but everyone knows I'm a vegan and that was the most exciting part for me; Making amazing vegan and raw vegan treats and praying everyone enjoy them! I said to her - no way! So my poor mum (just trying to give a suggestion and being totally shut down) went along with what I wanted (I'm a little strong minded...)

I was so excited to sift through the hundreds of possible recipes!! I wanted it to be a really healthy shower - mainly because I can't eat junk without being sick, and I wanted everyone to taste how yummy healthy can be. I didn't use any processed sugars or white flours (with the exception of the cupcakes which were made professionally by a lovely friend - and I will give you her details later on, and the punch which contained sprite).



I narrowed my options down and discussed them with my mum and the menu looked like this:

Organic Corn Chips with my Famous Guacamole
Seasonal Fruit Platter
Veggie Sticks with Hummus dip
Caramelized onion, Tomato and Thyme Tarts (These were all my mum and they were incredible!)

White Choc Chip Macadamia Cookies
Peach Tarts (Also all thanks to mum)
Banana Coconut Balls
Raw Chocolate Brownies
Raw Chocolate Truffles
Raw White Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Fruit Punch
Sparkling Water with Fresh Lime
Appletiser (Sparkling Apple Juice)



My Famous Guacamole

2 Avocados, mashed (keep it chunky)
1/2 Red Onion, diced
1 large Tomato, diced
Small handful of coriander/cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1/2 Lime
1/4 tsp Ground Cumin
Salt and Pepper to taste

Add all ingredients to a bowl and stir to combine
Serve with Organic Corn Chips


The fruit and vegetable platter was just a mixture of seasonal fruits (it was summer in Australia so there was an abundance of delicious tropical summer fruits) and the veggie platter contained celery, carrot, snowpeas etc. Serve with your favourite hummus - either store bought or you can whip up your own. There are plenty of recipes online. I like mine to be really garlicy :)


My Beautiful Mum


Caramelized Onion, Tomato and Thyme Tarts

PLEASE BARE WITH ME AS I NEED TO CHASE UP THIS RECIPE FROM MY MAMA... 


AND ONTO THE SWEETS....... :)


White Choc Chip Macadamia Cookies



These cookies didn't turn out exactly as I'd envisioned. White Choc Chip Macadamia cookies were one of my favourites before going vegan, but I'd never attempted them in a vegan version, so I decided to give it a go for the shower. I made my own white chocolate chips, which were delicious, however they melted into the cookie in the oven. The cookies still had a white chocolate taste, but there weren't any chunks of white chocolate. Had I known this was going to happen I would have just bought rice milk white chocolate and used that. The cookie dough was also very sticky and wet and it was hard to cut out the heart shape moulds. I want to play around with recipes and different ingredients to create a perfect cookie, however I'm still including the recipe on here because to my surprise the cookies got eaten almost faster than the rest of the food.

White Chocolate Chips

2-inch cube cacao butter (30 grams, or 2 tbsp after melting)
1/8 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 Tbsp Powdered sugar (I used rapadura sugar and whizzed it in the high speed blender to create a "powder" like icing sugar)
1 Tbsp macadamia butter 
Very tiny pinch salt

Melt the cacao butter (on the stove). Turn off heat, then stir in all other ingredients. Pour into candy molds or a plastic container, and freeze until it hardens.

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Cookies

Sugar blend:
1/2 cup maple syrup 
1/2 cup Coconut or Rapadura sugar
3/4 cup Olive nuttelex or 2 sticks of Earth Balance Buttery Spread Sticks (if in America)
1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 medium banana

Dry:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 Tbsp vital wheat gluten flour or Xantham Gum
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp baking soda

Fold in:
1/2 cup vegan white chocolate chips
1/2 cup raw chopped macadamia nuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Add sugar blend ingredients to large bowl. Blend with hand mixer until butter is creamy - a little chunky is still OK.
3. Add in the dry ingredients and mixer blend on lowest setting just until the mixture gets thick. Then remove mixer beaters and hand fold/stor the rest of the dough together.
4. Fold in the chips and nuts. Add more if you want.
5. Spoon dough onto parchment paper lined baking sheets. 
6. Bake cookies at 180C/350F degrees for about 16 minutes.



Peach Tarts

PLEASE BARE WITH ME AS I NEED TO CHASE UP THIS RECIPE FROM MY MAMA... 

Banana Coconut Balls

These banana coconut balls are so simple, quick and easy to whip up, and have been a favourite of mine for a couple of years! Last minute drama and I ran out of coconut to roll the balls into, so I placed them in the fridge, got coconut but by then, the coconut wouldn't stick to the balls. They still taste delicious though ;)




1/2 cup ground almonds,
3 cups wholegrain oats,
1/2 cup sultanas,
1/2 cup medjool dates,
1/2 cup coconut and extra for garnish
3 tsp honey
1 very ripe banana
A little water to bind

Blend it in food processor and roll into balls and roll in coconut
Keep in fridge.


Raw Chocolate Brownies


I have already posted this brownie recipe on my blog, however here it is again for your convenience. For some reason I don't have an individual picture of the plate of brownies served at the shower so if you want to see a picture please go to my other blogpost here

1 cup pecans 
1 cup medjool dates (make sure u remove pits)
5 tablespoons raw cacao powder
4 tablespoons shredded unsweetened coconut
2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt



Place pecans alone in your food processor and process until the pecans become small and crumbly.Add dates to the pecans and process again until the mixture sticks together and the dates are well processed.Add the remaining ingredients and process again until the mixture turns a lovely dark chocolatey brown. Stop processing before it gets too buttery. (There should still be air between the small bits so that you will be able to press them down into your brownie pan.)Dump the mixture into a brownie dish or small cake pan and press down firmly using your clean hands.Refrigerate for a couple of hours. Store this raw brownie recipe in the refrigerator, if it lasts that long ;)


Raw Chocolate Truffles

These Raw Chocolate Truffles were one of the favourites for the day and I have had people dying to get their hands on the recipe! I was excited to make these, but nervous as to what response they would get, being that they are raw. Raw chocolate has a very different taste to "cadbury" and your normal milk chocolates. However the taste is real, not processed and GUILT-FREE !!(That's the best part)
I wish I could take all the glory for these bad boys, but they are all thanks to one of my favourite Raw Food Chefs, Russell James. Please see his website here: www.therawfoodchef.com This recipe is from his "Raw Chocolate" Recipe E-Books that I purchased a couple of years ago. He has AMAZING recipes - check him out and subscribe to his email newsletters as he is always sending out free recipes.
2 cups cashews
34 cup cacao powder
1 cup cacao butter, grated or chopped small then melted
12 cup agave nectar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
12 teaspoon tamari
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons coconut oil
Raw pistachios, chopped and Coconut (to roll balls into)

Blend all ingredients in a high-speed blender until
smooth, separate into 2 and place in freezer for an hour
or two to firm up.
Remove from the freezer and roll into small balls. Roll
the first half in pistachios and the second in coconut.
Return to the fridge until ready to eat.




Raw White Chocolate Dipped Strawberries


This next recipe is also from Russell James' "Raw Chocolate" Recipe E-book... Yum!!!


2 cups fresh strawberries
1 cup cashews
1 cup cacao butter, grated or chopped small then melted
34 cup agave nectar
1 tablespoon water
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Blend all ingredients in a high-speed blender until
smooth.
Dip strawberries in chocolate mixture and place in
fridge to allow to set.
If your chocolate isn’t sticking to the strawberries and
runs off, you can leave the chocolate to firm up a little
before dipping the strawberries.


BEVERAGES......



Fruit Punch



1L Tropical Fruit juice
1L Sprite
Blueberries
Green Grapes
Kiwi Fruit
Strawberries

Chop up fruit and place in a large bowl with juice, sprite and some ice



Appletiser is just a store bought sparkling apple juice with no added sugars or preservatives!



And last but definitely not least - My gorgeous cupcakes!! Not so guilt-free, but absolutely amazing!! They looked incredible and tasted divine!! AND they were completely vegan - who ever said vegans miss out are crazy!!!

Please visit Little Miss Cakes and check out all Sharon's other beautiful work! She is an absolute artist and her cakes are just so scrumptious and creative!




So here it is... All the magical mouth-watering goodies from my baby shower - now shared with all of you beautiful people!

So go, make some yummy guilt-free treats and INDULGE yourself in some serious goodness! 




♥ LOVE BEC ♥  

XXX



2 comments:

  1. Im totally going to make those raw brownies!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Everything looks delicious, especially the chocolate truffles. I've always wanted to try agave nectar/syrup, but it's a totally new concept to me.

    ReplyDelete